At the moment I am doing my readings and eating jajangmyun for lunch that my roommate ordered for us. Each bowl is 4,000 won, which is around 3-4 dollars. It’s slightly sweet, most likely from the caramel… I think. I have no idea, but it’s so good. I think I will miss this. I’m finally getting used to living here, and I am more comfortable bowing and doing other polite gestures. I still need to get used to getting through crowds without being too rude and also the hand elbow thing that people often do here. Actually getting through crowds isn’t the problem, it’s the few people who block my way and I have to say 조심만요 or something like that. haha.
I have been staying in my room for a while and everything seems to be made of wood. My door is green and almost seems soundproof, but it definitely separates us from our neighbors as it is heavy and shakes the door when it closes. I usually take the elevator and the fake marble around the elevator has become a familiar image when venturing outside. The elevator speaks in English and I press the button for the second basement to get to the lobby. I usually hear English being spoken.
I forget that I am in Seoul, much less in South Korea.
As I said before, we went to Seoraksan, which was incredible. There’s nothing much else to say about it though.
The last couple weeks I’ve just been going around Seoul. I saw Amadeus at the movie theater, which was awesome because it’s one of my favorite movies and I’ve never seen it in the theaters. After seeing that movie, I started to listen to more mozart and I have to say the Requiem, Concerto For Two Pianos, K. 365; 3rd Movement (especially starting at 2:30), and Mass In C Minor; K. 427, Kyrie are my favorite songs from the soundtrack.
I don’t know if my korean has improved that much. It makes me a little sad, and I think I just need to be more confident in using more Korean. :( I think I romanticized South Korea before coming here and the idea of improving my Korean. Nowadays I’ve been feeling rather disillusioned but I think it takes a bit of time.
My north korean politics class is kind of horrible, but I am over it now. I wish it was better, but it’s not. Maybe I’m not used to the system here, but I never knew how good UW was until now. haha.
I wish bernard werber’s Empire of Angels was translated into English because it’s translated into Korean. I can’t seem to find an English version of the book. Maybe I should just buy the korean version and try to read it. haha. It’ll take forever though. I kind of want to buy 황진이 by 홍석중 and 시가 내게로 왔다 by 김용택, but I’m not quite sure if it’s worth it yet. 도가니 seems super popular due to the most recent movie based on the book.
I desperately wanted to see 10cm, FT Island, and Sung Shi Kyung, but I’ve given up on that in general. haha.
I’ve narrowed down the goal list I had posted before:
watch 파수꾼, 티끌모아 로맨스
get glasses
꼬꼬면 shoes
Dried persimmons
face maskssocks1 pair of earrings some clothes
Places:
Sinsadong/apgujongSungshin’s women’s university stationHongdae
CDSBlue dawn10cm
a Tale of two sisters ost
maybe: Sung shi kyung, ft island, CN BLUE
I still need to meet 5 other people while I’m in Seoul and then buy a few other things that people requested. haha
